Bill would help boost Great Lakes dredging

A handful of Great Lakes-area congressmen have introduced a bill to classify the entire Great Lakes system as one body for the purposes of qualifying for more harbor dredging. "Ensuring Michigan's harbors and ports throughout the Great Lakes are properly dredged is critical to Michigan in terms of ...

A handful of Great Lakes-area congressmen have introduced a bill to classify the entire Great Lakes system as one body for the purposes of qualifying for more harbor dredging.

"Ensuring Michigan's harbors and ports throughout the Great Lakes are properly dredged is critical to Michigan in terms of manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as well as the economic longevity of the entire Great Lakes region,” Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland, said in a prepared statement.

Huizenga was among the sponsors of the bipartisan bill, called the Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013.

Harbors are classified based on how many tons of cargo pass through them. The bill would direct the Army Corps of Engineers to consider the entire Great Lakes navigation system as one entity, totaling up the 160 million of cargo that passes through the region’s 140 ports.

"By classifying the Great Lakes like other major shipping waterways, harbors spanning from the St. Lawrence River Basin to Lake Michigan will be able to compete for funds needed to alleviate the over $200 million dredging backlog throughout the Great Lakes,” Huizenga said.

“Unfortunately we’ve seen the funding that’s supposed to be used for our harbors being siphoned off and spent on other things. Frankly, we need to fix that,” said Benishek who’s district includes the Upper Peninsula and the tip of Michigan’s mitten.

The Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013 would use existing funds from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to dredge Great Lakes commercial harbors and establish a cost sharing program that would give priority to recreational harbors that provide 50 percent of the cost to a Great Lakes Navigation System project.

“Our Great Lakes harbors and supporting waterways create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the entire region and the commerce carried on the Great Lakes contributes greatly to the entire nation’s economy,” said Miller, who represents part of Michigan’s Thumb.